Exceptional trial of soccer swindlers

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The Correctional Court of the Nancy Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (JIRS) will be examining the so-called “Carton Rouge” case from October 21 to November 15. Twenty-two defendants, 850 civil parties and losses of around 28 million euros.

The hearing, scheduled to last four weeks, will be exceptionally relocated to the Center de Congrès Prouvé, in Nancy, due to the exceptional number of parties involved. To date, 850 civil parties have been named in this extraordinary case.

L1 soccer clubs and private individuals defrauded

Twenty-two defendants will be tried, mainly for offenses involving organized fraud, organized money laundering and participation in a criminal association. Three of these individuals are the subject of arrest warrants that have been circulated internationally.
Six other individuals have agreed, at the suggestion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, to plead guilty under the plea-bargaining procedures organized prior to the hearing.
The case involves fraud perpetrated against League 1 soccer clubs and their sponsors, as well as fraud perpetrated against some 1,200 individuals, mainly French, for a total loss of over 28 million euros.

Three clubs transferred the funds

The case originates from investigations opened following scams or attempted scams committed against several Ligue 1 soccer clubs and some of their sponsors in August and September 2017.
The scammers presented themselves to the clubs in the false capacity of players’ agents, and in some cases managed to have players’ salaries transferred to accounts opened by them. The funds were then quickly transferred abroad.
In all, three clubs transferred funds to the crooks for a total amount of around €64,000. Attempts against six other clubs were unsuccessful.

Scams against private individuals

While investigating scams and attempted scams against soccer clubs, investigators discovered that the same gang was behind multiple scams against individuals.
Twenty-eight fraudulent websites were identified. The sales of diamonds or bitcoins offered by almost all of these sites were completely fictitious.
The sites were built on similar models and carried the same misleading indications designed to deceive victims.
In all, between May 2016 and December 2018, almost 898 victims paid a total of 20.9 million euros for diamond purchases, while 284 others lost 6.8 million euros thinking they were acquiring crypto-currencies.

A structured, hierarchical organization

The judicial investigation revealed a vast organization operating according to a strict division of tasks, with the principals based in Israel.
For the creation of the websites, several defendants were accused of having, with the help of nominees, created or acquired around ten French companies, most of which were based in the Marseille area. These companies, which had no real activity, were mainly used to identify themselves as the owners of fraudulent websites.
A team of one IT specialist and two designers based in Marseille was responsible for creating and developing some of the fraudulent websites. Other individuals were responsible for adding payment modules to the websites.
Victims were contacted by telephone from call centers in Israel. In their dealings with the victims, the employees of these call centers followed scripts supplied to them by the organizers of the scams.
An important task was also to open accounts all over Europe, in the name of companies with no real activity, whose sole purpose was to enable the swindlers to collect and transfer the victims’ funds.

119 accounts opened in 19 countries

In the course of the investigation, the examining magistrate requested inquiries from the German, Belgian, British, Bulgarian, Danish, Czech, Hungarian, Luxembourg, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Slovak and Swiss authorities.
A total of 199 accounts opened in 19 different countries had been used to collect and transfer the funds transferred by the victims of the scams.
The balances of several bank accounts opened in France or abroad were seized or blocked in the course of the judicial investigation, for a total amount of €2.8 million. If convicted, these sums may be used to compensate the victims.



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